Liberal Radio, Even Without Air America

In a week of bad news for liberal causes, the announcement that Air America, the left-wing talk-radio network, was abruptly closing was greeted this way by Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos political blog, when he asked on Twitter, “Air America was still really on the air?”

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The collapse of Air America on Thursday came across as a symbolic loss for those seeking an ideological counterweight to right-wing talk radio dominated by personalities like Rush Limbaugh. But symbolic it is, little more, given that small pockets of progressive talk are flourishing on the radio dial despite Air America’s misfortunes. The hosts of several progressive talk shows hastened to remind fans last week that although the format’s brand-name network had folded, their shows were still on the air.

Air America’s biggest names have been more successful after leaving the network. Rachel Maddow has a prime-time show on MSNBC, and Al Franken, the former comedian most closely associated with Air America, is a senator from Minnesota.

Reminded of Ms. Maddow and Mr. Franken on Twitter Thursday evening, Mr. Moulitsas conceded, “That’s a pretty good legacy.” But with so many defections and so few listeners, it is little wonder that people might think Air America had folded long ago.

The nearly six-year-old network, which suffered from merry-go-round management and repeated financial shortfalls, halted production on Thursday evening, only one hour after staff members were told they were losing their jobs. The network’s signals will officially leave the airwaves on Monday.

Former hosts like Thom Hartmann credit Air America with promoting the notion that “good talk radio can come from either side.” Others note that the network caused some local stations to switch to left-wing talk, making more room for hosts like Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller, who always remained independent of Air America.

Mr. Hartmann, who replaced Mr. Franken on Air America in 2007, is called the most important progressive host in the United States by Talkers Magazine. In an interview he said he found Air America to be “spectacularly incompetent” at running a radio network and gaining an audience, and left Air America last year for a lesser-known syndication company. “We’ve been far more successful since we left,” he said.

In interviews last week a half-dozen former Air America employees cited similar complaints, namely that a series of owners and managers lacked the necessary broadcasting business expertise. They spoke to what may be Air America’s other enduring legacy: that political media from either side of the aisle is more successful when run as a business rather than as a crusade.

Air America’s problem, said Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers Magazine, was not knowing “whether they were a political campaign or a broadcasting company.”

“They ended up not being terribly good at either,” Mr. Harrison added.

What Air America peddled was a collection of shows that it syndicated to local stations. At the outset some stations, like KKGN-AM, Green 960 in the San Francisco Bay area, carried virtually all of the programming. But “it was a mess from almost the get-go,” KKGN’s program director, John Scott, wrote in a letter to listeners on the station’s Web site, green960.com. He cited “management screw ups” and overspending among the reasons, and asserted that talk radio has to be entertaining, not strictly political.

In its most recent incarnation, Air America had reimagined itself as a multimedia venture with a new Web site and hosts like Montel Williams, but that was not enough. Charlie Kireker, the chairman of Air America Media, cited the poor economy as a reason for the closing in a letter to employees on Thursday. The company had been seeking new investors up until last week.

Some conservatives have reveled in the network’s failure. The Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly cited Air America’s demise to cheer on “the collapse of the far-left media” and to claim that the United States is “moving to the right, very quickly.” Even the biggest proponents of progressive talk admit that they have no Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity equivalent.

The disparity goes back to the conservatives’ “20-year head start” on powerful radio stations, Mr. Hartmann said.

Ron Hartenbaum, the manager for Mr. Hartmann, Ms. Miller and other hosts, said that the disparity also illustrated how radio stations were “conservatively run” by agenda-driven and risk-averse owners.

Other factors include listener preferences, the demographics of talk-radio listeners and the various options on the dial, like National Public Radio.

But a number of progressive hosts have managed to stand out in recent years, thanks partly to the boost that Air America gave to the format. Mr. Hartenbaum said that the format was “more stable and healthier than it has ever been.”

The Air America alum Mike Malloy, for one, picked up new stations last week because some former Air America affiliates needed programming to fill their schedules.

Among other former Air America personnel, Randi Rhodes, who brought her program to Air America at its founding, left it in 2008 and moved last year to Clear Channel’s Premiere Radio Networks, also home to Mr. Limbaugh and a bastion of other conservative talkers.

With the exits of Ms. Maddow, Mr. Hartmann, Ms. Rhodes and others, Air America saw its market share diminish.

On the Web site of the progressive station KPTK in Seattle, am1090seattle.com, for instance, listeners were assured that “most of your favorite shows come from variety of sources,” meaning that the Air America closing had minimal impact. KPTK’s only weekday program still provided by Air America  “The Ron Reagan Show,” hosted in the evenings by the son of the former president  will remain on the air.

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Arts »A version of this article appeared in print on January 25, 2010, on page C1 of the New York edition.